Corrections Officer David Nussbaum said in his incident report that Kenton County jail inmate Steven Jordan was disobeying orders.

Jordan says Nussbaum used excessive force.

The incident – which left Jordan with a large gash above his right eye – was captured on another officer's body camera. It is unclear from the video what prompted the scuffle, but Jordan and Nussbaum can be seen facing each other at the start.

Nussbaum pushes Jordan, who rocks back on his heels. Nussbaum then slams Jordan to the floor.

"What the f---, man?" Jordan cries. “Ow! Ow! Ow! What the hell did I do?”

A second officer handcuffs Jordan, and he is told several times to be quiet as he is lying face-down, blood pooling under his head. Jordan continues to swear, saying he needs to go to the hospital.

“You busted the s--- out of my head,” he says at one point.

At another, he says to Nussbaum, “That was a little obsessive, man," to which an officer - it's not clear which - replies, “Not at all.”

A corrections officer from Kenton County jail shot this picture of Steven Jordan after the Nov. 2 incident.(Photo: Provided)

Jailer Terry Carl said he is investigating the incident. He would not say whether Nussbaum is on leave.

Nussbaum could not be reached for comment, but in the incident report, he said he told Jordan to stop looking through his bag of property.

Nussbaum said he tried to push Jordan against a wall. Then, because of Jordan's "aggressive" stance and his continued attempts to pull away, "I wrapped my arms around inmate Jordan's torso and muscled him to the floor."

Other officers corroborated Nussbaum's statement.

Jordan, 28, in a statement provided to The Enquirer, said he was simply looking through his property bag when Nussbaum confronted him.

"I was slamed (sic) against the wall and to the floor ... for no reason other than trying to explane (sic) myself," Jordan wrote.

He acknowledged he "exchanged words" with Nussbaum, but Jordan's mother, Pennie Tackett, of Taylor Mill, said Nussbaum was retaliating against her son because he complained about Nussbaum the day before.

In that complaint, Jordan said that Nussbaum, while driving inmates back to the jail from the courthouse, was braking the vehicle repeatedly, causing inmates to bounce around in the back.

Nussbaum started working for the Kenton County Detention Center in 2008 and was assigned to the jail's court team in 2011.

He got several positive evaluations but over the years was reprimanded for tardiness; for arguing with a police officer at the Covington F.O.P Lodge; and for interfering with a Dayton, Kentucky, police investigation that involved his brother.

In 2013, Nussbaum was suspended without pay for 10 days after a fist fight with another deputy.

In 2017, he was arrested in Florence for driving under the influence of alcohol. An evaluation from that same year notes he was "quick to go defensive and argue with others."

In June of this year, Nussbaum was given a written warning after he failed to turn on his body camera to record an incident with an inmate.

Jordan, who has struggled with addiction for several years, was in jail on a meth-possession charge and was in the process of being released to go to a treatment program.

Tackett, his mom, said she took Jordan straight from the jail to the hospital, where he got stitches. Jordan is now at Transitions Inc. of Northern Kentucky, a residential treatment center in Falmouth.

"I'm so angry. And sad," Tackett said. "This just didn't have to happen."